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N E S I M U S 



APOSTOLIC DIRECTIONS TO CHRISTIAN 

MASTERS, IN REFERENCE TO THEIR 

SLAVES, CONSIDERED. 



•^ 



Y EVANGELICUS 



t^ BOSTON: 

GOULD, KENDALL & LINCOLN; 

No. 59 Washington Street. 

1842. 



L'.*. 



JO 



\VM. WHITE & H, P. LEWIS, 

PRINTERS, 

OVER BOSTON TYPE FOUNDRY, SPRING LANE. 



PREFACE 



The following essay is not designed to 
subserve the interests of any party. It aims 
to treat of the duty of masters, in the light 
of apostolic directions. In order, however, 
properly to apply these directions to the case 
of masters in our slaveholding States, it was 
necessary to show the similarity between 
the slavery now existing in those States, 
and that Avhich formerly existed among 
those to whom the directions were origin- 
ally given. An essential similarity between 
the two cases has been called in question. 
It was, plainly, incumbent on the writer to 
devote a portion of the essay to that topic. 

Without meaning to bespeak favor, it may 
yet be proper to say, that injustice is often 



4 PREFACE. 

done to an author's sentiments by dissociat- 
ing the different parts of his work, and 
placing sentences, or paragraphs, either in 
an insulated position, or in wrong connec- 
tions. A wholly unauthorized use may 
thus be made of his sentiments, or state- 
ments. The subject on which this essay 
treats, particularly requires that its different 
parts be viewed together. 

It only remains for the writer to say, that 
he considers himself throughout as address- 
ing joro/es^eo? Christians. 



n 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

Introductory Observations. - 7 

PART II. 
American Slavery compared with 
THAT WHICH occasioned the Apos- 
tle Paul's directions to Masters. 13 



PART III. 
The Apostle's directions to Mas- 
ters examined. - - - - 



33 



THE 

APOSTOLIC DIRECTIONS. 

PART I. 

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

There is not, nor could we justly expect 
there would be, a definitely settled state of pub- 
lic opinion on many questions connected with 
the existing system of American slavery. North- 
ern Christians differ widely among themselves as 
to their opportunities of information respecting 
the facts in the case, and as to the various in- 
fluences which, however insensibly, do really 
and strongly affect the judgments of individuals. 
And though they may be united, to a man, in an 
utter disapproval of the essential principle of 
slavery, yet many feel unable to form an estab- 
lished opinion respecting the immediate duty of 



8 INTRODUCTORY 

Christian masters in the southern States. And 
at the South, there is, doubtless, much vagueness 
of opinion, or at least of feeling, in regard to this 
subject, viewed both abstractly and practically, 
both with reference to immediate duty and pro- 
spectively. Many, however, in both sections of 
the country, have formed their opinions and 
purposes, whether wisely or unwisely, we say 
not. It is well worthy of consideration, whether 
there may not be a mutual misunderstanding 
between many Christian brethren respectively, 
at the North and at the South, since in such a 
case there is ground for alienation and asperity, 
which might at least be softened by frank ex- 
planations. 

We might expect, beforehand, that there would 
he real diversities of opinion on this subject 
between numerous individuals in the northern 
section of our country, and numerous individuals 
at the South, all of them conscientious and anx- 
ious, perhaps equally so, to know and to do what 
is right. The circumstances, in which the citi- 
zens of these two divisions of our country are 



OBSERVATIONS. 9 

placed, are extremely diverse. The great mass 
of northern residents have not a personal ac- 
quaintance with the actual domestic state, or the 
social and political connections, of their southern 
fellow-citizens. From the fact of their having 
been born and educated in a free community, 
they are led to look at the darker features of the 
subject; and not a few embrace conclusions 
which leave out of view the very different cir- 
cumstances of persons in other communities than 
their own. On the other hand, southern resi- 
dents, born and educated on the soil of slavery, 
naturally look at the milder features of the sub- 
ject, and dwell with complacency on those views 
of it, by which they think it may, temporarily at 
least, be regarded as compatible with refined 
humanity. A false method of reasoning, too, 
may have become habitual to some of them ; and 
because slavery has been overruled to the spirit- 
ual welftire of many benighted souls, and many 
converted slaves have been heard expressing 
gratitude that they were brought to this land 
where they have heard the gospel and felt its 



10 INTRODUCTORY 

saving power on their hearts, the conclusion has 
been leaped at and tenaciously maintained, that 
€ven God has given signs of his approval. 

Nor ought it to surprise us that in many 
individuals belonging respectively to the two 
divisions of our country, there should be much 
sensitiveness and suspicion in regard to each 
other. Those who have been taught, among the 
lessons of their infancy, that every human being- 
is entitled to civil rights, and that, in regard to. 
rights, all men are born free and equal, can- 
not, without pain, contemplate communities in 
which these favorite principles are disregarded ^ 
nor can they, at once, divest themselves 
of a suspicion, that, in such communities, 
there is an unreasonable prejudice against 
a certain class, and a known infringe- 
ment of religious obligrations. On the other 
hand, those who have been nursed in such com- 
munities, do not regard themselves as worthy of 
censure for what they consider as the unavoida- 
ble circumstances of their condition, while they 
think themselves also endeavoring to act accord- 



OBSERVATIONS. II 

ing to Christian duty. The whole subject is 
viewed, by these two classes, respectively, from 
different points and in different aspects. On 
both sides, certain abstract principles, with their 
legitimate inferences, are kept in view, without 
being modified by other abstract principles, 
equally true and equally fruitful of inferences. 

The momentous importance of the subject of 
slavery, in its social and moral bearings, and its 
repugnance to the cherished feelings of Chris- 
tians, in the non-slaveholding States, will not 
allow it to be dismissed from public attention. 
The feeling of dislike to it is becoming deeper, 
and is gathering strength. At the same time, 
there is disagreement in the northern churches ; 
not in regard to the essential character of slavery 
itself, but in regard to the duty of southern 
Christians towards their slaves, and the position 
which Christians of the free States ought to hold 
on this subject. In this state of things, while 
the disciples of the common Lord need both more 
light and more love, more confidence in one 
another's integrity and benevolence, and more 



12 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

mutual accommodation, a frank and amicable 
discussion of the apostolic directions to masters 
may be of use to all. No one ought to demand 
more on this subject from his Christian brother, 
than an apostle demands. And no Christian 
ought to be contented with doing less. 



PART II. 

AMERICAN SLAVERY COMPARED AVITII THAT 

WHICH OCCASIONED THE APOSTLE PAUL's 

DIRECTIONS TO MASTERS. 

Whether the relation, which the masters, ad- 
dressed by the apostle, bore to their servants, 
was essentially the same as that uliich masters 
in our southern States bear to their slaves, is 
here, of course, a fundamental inquiry, and one 
which must be carefully examined. We may 
pursue this examination the more freely, as the 
result of it, whatever that may be, cannot decide 
the justifiableness of slavery. It is simply a 
question of fact, not of morality. If it shall 
appear that a close resemblance exists between 
the two cases, this circumstance alone cannot 
prove that the state of things in our country is 
right or wrong. It may, indeed, put us into a 



14 AMERICAN AND ROMAN 

position favorable for examining the moral part 
of the question. 

That the relation of the masters, addressed by 
the apostle, was essentially the same as that of 
the slaveholder to his slaves; in other words, 
that the servants spoken of by him, were persons 
in servile bondage to their masters, has been the 
received opinion of Christendom. The grounds 
on which this opinion rests, are certainly strong. 
The passages of the apostles' writings, in which 
servants are addressed or spoken of, harmonize 
with this view. Let us examine the passages. 

Eph. 6 : 5, &c. " Servants, be obedient to 
them that are your masters according to the 
flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of 
your heart, as unto Christ ; not with eye-service, 
as men-pleasers ; but as the servants of Christ, 
doing the will of God from the heart : with good 
will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to 
men : knowing that whatsoever good thing any 
man doeth, the same shall he receive of the 
Lord, whether he be bond or free." Compare 
Col. 3: 22, &c. In 1 Tim. 6: 1, we read. 



SLAVERY COMPARED. 15 

" Let as many servants as are under the yoke, 
count their own masters worthy of all honor," 
&c. In Titus 2 : 9, 10, " Exhort servants to 
be obedient unto their own masters, and to please 
them well in all thincrs ; not answerincr acrain : 
not purloining; but showing all good fidelity." 
The directions of the apostle Peter also shed 
light on our present inquiry. 1 Pet. 2 : 18, &-c. 
" Servants, be subject to your masters with all 
fear ; not only to the good and gentle, but also 
to the froward. For this is thank-worthy, if a 
man for conscience toward God endure grief, 
suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if 
when ye be buffeted for your faults ye shall take 
it patiently ? But if, when ye do well and suffer 
for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable 
with God." 

Notice here the description of these persons : 
they are in a condition opposite to that of free- 
men ; they are under the yoke. Notice the vices 
against which the apostle guards them — vices 
which are eminently those of a slave population : 
eye-service and stealing. Notice their liability 



16 AMERICAN AND ROMAN 

to be maltreated according to the caprice of 
irresponsible and haughty masters. Can there 
be any doubt that these servants were really 
slaves in the proper sense of the term ? And if 
so, the masters, whom the apostle addressed as 
holding the corresponding relation, were really 
slaveholders. 

The words, also, which the apostles employed 
to express the relation of servant, were familiarly 
employed by Greek writers when they designed, 
beyond all question, to convey the idea of slave. 
The term by which the apostle Paul, in 1 Tim. 
6 : 1, and Titus 2 : 9, and the apostle Peter in 
his first epistle, 2 : IS,* express the relation of 
master, is also the same as is currently employed 
by Greek writers to designate masters of slaves. 
Of this assertion the proof is abundant. The 
other term which the apostle Paul employed to 
convey the idea of master, as in Col. 4 : l,t is 
not generally, if at all, used by the classical 
writers as the correlative of slave. It has a 
wider use than the other word. The New Tes- 

* JeanOTi^g. f Kvgiog. 



SLAVERY COMPARED. 17 

lament, however, does not, in regard to this word, 
imitate the classical distinction ; but, together 
with its other significations, employs it evidently, 
by the contrast in which it stands, to designate 
the same relation which is expressed by the other 
word. Whether in writing of the relation, as in 
the above-mentioned passages of Paul and Peter, 
the harsher term was considered more proper ; 
while in writing to those who were masters, the 
milder and more honorable epithet was consid- 
ered more suitable, we have not the means of 
determining. 

Let us now pass to another view. It must be 
remembered, that long before the introduction of 
Christianity, and during the life-time of the 
apostles, and long after, the Roman empire 
embraced the civilized world. Its customs and 
institutions were every where established, or 
were incorporated with regulations previously 
existing in regions which had become subject to 
its dominion. The Roman sway extended over 
the cities and districts where the apostles plant- 
ed Christian churches ; so that those churches 
2* 



18 AMERICAN AND ROMAN 

arose in the midst of Roman institutions, and 
consisted of persons whose modes of life, and 
whose relations to one another, were regulated 
by those institutions. Converted servants, or 
slaves, and converted masters, were gathered 
into Christian churches. It is important, then, 
to ascertain, if we can, what was the character 
of the slavery which prevailed in the Roman 
empire. For the question we are investigating 
is, whether the mutual relation of master and 
servant in the apostolic times and among the 
people to whom the apostles wrote, was essen- 
tially the same as that which now exists in our 
southern States ? And thus there is no need of 
encumbering the topic under discussion with 
any inquiries pertaining to the servitude which 
existed among the Hebrews. Indeed, it would 
be preposterous to suppose that the customs of 
the Roman empire were regulated by the Jewish 
statutes. 

We must refer to standard authorities, on the 
subject of slavery in the Roman empire, both as 
to its essential qualities and as to its circum- 



SLAVERY COMPARED. 19 

stances. From Adam's Roman Antiquities, a 
few statements will now be presented by which 
a comparison may at once be made between the 
slavery existing in the apostles' time, and that 
which now exists in our country. This author 
quotes original Roman writers for confirmation 
of his statements. The more recent European 
writers on the same subject, agree with him. 
We learn, then, from these authorities, that 
among the Romans, slaves were regarded as the 
property of their masters, and like other property 
were bouglit and sold. They were considered 
as things, rather than as persons. They could 
not appear as witnesses in a court of justice ; 
nor were they allowed, except by the sufferance 
of a kind master, to make a will, or to inherit 
any thing. The chUdren of a female slave be- 
came slaves to her master ; so that the servitude 
was hereditary. There was not a regular and 
permanent state of marriage among the slaves. 

Such was the slavery, according to its essen- 
tial qualities, which prevailed in the empire at 
the introduction of the gospel ; and it was in 



20 AMERICAN AND ROMAN 

view of such a state of things, that the apostles 
spread the gospel, and gave the instructions to 
masters and servants which we find in their 
epistles. Every one knows, that the qualities 
above presented still live in the system of Amer- 
ican slavery. There is, to some extent, a differ- 
ence, not however in point of law, on the subject 
of marriage. Marriage among the slaves is, in 
our country, regarded with a degree of sacred- 
ness. Still, it must be obvious, insuperable 
obstacles to a just view of the marriage relation 
will exist, so long as masters have a legal right, 
and exercise their legal right, to sunder the con- 
nection according as their convenience, or 
interest, may suggest. 

We have now looked at what may be called 
the essentials of slavery, and have seen that be- 
tween the system which existed in the time of 
the apostles, and in the regions where they 
gathered Christian churches, and that which 
exists in our southern States, there is an exact 
resemblance. The one seems almost the copy 
of the other. Let us now turn to some of the 



SLAVERY COMPARED. 21 

circumstances of the two systems, and notice 
how the case stands. Among the Romans, then, 
till the time of the Antonines, in the second 
century of the Christian era, masters had abso- 
lute power over their slaves ; they could put 
them to death at pleasure. Partial attempts had, 
indeed, been made before their time to restrain 
this power ; but an effectual check appears not 
to have been applied until the time just stated.* 
With absolute power over the life of the slave, 
it could scarcely be otherwise than that severe 
scourging, and a variety of torments would be 
matters of perpetual occurrence. Such was the 
fact to a mournful extent. The capriciousness 

* From the researches of Heineccius in Roman jurisprudence, (An- 
tiquitatum Romanarum Jurisprudentiam Illuslrantium Syntagma,) 
it apfiears that efforts on the part of tlie Roman emperors to restrain 
the cruelty and to limit the power of masters, commenced with Au- 
gustus, in whose reiijn our Saviour was born. The emperor Claudius 
also made regulations to the same effect. Hadrian, who died A. D. 
138, abolished some of the severe modes of punishment and particu- 
larly forbad the taking of the slave's life, unless by the authority of 
the magistrate. Antoninus Pius, who died A. D. 161, carried this 
merciful intervention still further; and in the reign of Constantine 
the Great, who died A. D. 337, a master who had, through 
punishment, caused the death of his slave, or of set purpose had taki 
his life, was held guilty of homicide. 



22 



AMERICAN AND ROMAN 



of the master had little to interfere with its in- 
dulgence. As a specimen of the extent to which 
caprice would lead, it may be stated that in case 
of a master's being murdered by some person, 
or persons, unknown, all his domestic slaves 
were liable to be put to death. In American 
slavery, it is well known, the master is not al- 
lowed absolute power over his slave. The law 
of the land does profess, to some extent, to limit 
and restrain his power and to take the unhappy 
slave under its protection. A wanton killing, 
or maiming, of a slave, by his master, is an in- 
dictable offence. So far, the American system 
has, undoubtedly, an advantage above that of the 
Roman empire, at least till some time after the 
introduction of Christianity. The mild influ- 
ences of Christianity, and of modern civilization, 
are also felt in the treatment of the slave. And, 
in all probability, while these influences have 
had an effect on legislative provision, it is these, 
too, rather than the dread of law, which mitigate, 
to such an extent as does actually exist, the 



SLAVERY COMPARED, 23 

rigors of an involuntary and hereditary bondage. 
For it can hardly be supposed, that, in a slave- 
holding community, a violation of the laws 
which protect the slave would, except in very 
extreme cases, be likely to find an informer, or 
an impartial jury ; particularly, if the violator of 
the law were a man of distinction. " Legisla- 
tion," it has been well said, " can never effect- 
ually protect a being who is the property of 
another." 

In two circumstances, at least, and those of 
great moment, the Roman system was decidedly 
milder than the American. In most of our slave 
States, it is well known, the laws absolutely pro- 
hibit the instructing of slaves to read and write. 
But among the Romans, slaves, if they manifested 
inclination and capacity, were instructed in lit- 
erature and the liberal arts. From among them 
were taken, not only laborers in domestic service, 
in agriculture, and other manual employments, 
but also physicians, surgeons, and secretaries. 
Some of them, too, were really learned men. As 
an offset, however, to the advantage of being 



24 AMERICAN AND ROMAN 

thus fitted for more elevated employments, it 
must be stated, that such slaves were greatly 
enhanced as to their pecuniary value, and were 
sometimes sold at an enormous price. Accord- 
ing to Plutarch, the wealthy Crassus obtained 
from this source a principal part of his riches. 

The other circumstance, in which the Roman 
system of slavery was less burdensome, both to 
master and to slave, consisted in the power of 
emancipating the slave from bondage. In almost 
every one of our slave States, the laws utterly 
forbid the master to grant freedom to his slaves, 
except by a special act of the legislature, or 
unless they be removed beyond the jurisdiction 
of the State. In almost all cases, this amounts 
to an absolute prohibition. Neither during his 
life-time, nor by will at his death, can a master 
gratify the impulses of benevolence, or comply 
with what he may feel to be the dictates of 
Christian principle, by terminating his slave's 
bondage, unless provision be made for the ser- 
vant's removal to some free commonwealth. A 
slave, set at liberty by his master in violation of 



SLAVERY COMPARED. )lO 

the law, is liable to seizure and public sale.* 
But throughout the Roman empire, the master 
enjoyed the right of liberating his slaves. This 
he could do by various legal forms ; and though 
all these forms did not secure to the freedman 
the rights of citizenship, they yet secured to him 
deliverance from bondage. The right, which 
the Romans thus enjoyed, was exercised, and 
abused. For, by means of it, many worthless 
and troublesome slaves were set at liberty, who 
could become only nuisances to society. In 
consequence of the multiplication of such cases, 
the laws regulating emancipation were subse- 
quently modified, so as to restrain this right 
within certain limits. At length it came to be 

* It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to say, that every particular, 
respecting American slavery, introduced in this essay, may not be 
applicable to each State. It is to the purpose, however, to mention 
regulations of an embarrassing nature, which exist in any one of the 
States. It is more important to remark that, probably in all the 
slave-holdini^ States, there are methods by which a master may favor 
his slaves with a species of nominal freedom. Such a freedom, how- 
ever, it is believed, is not recognized by the laws. The laws hold 
even such a master responsible in regard to those slaves ; and the 
nominal liberty which he grants them, is liable to bo interrupted by 
a change in his disposition or circumstances — by his death, and by 
various unfnreseen occurrences. 

3 



26 AMERICAN AND ROMAN 

the law, that a master might liberate only a cer- 
tain proportion of his servants; and however 
numerous a household he had, he was not allow- 
ed to free, by his will, more than a hundred. 
Never, however, was the power of emancipating 
wholly taken away, nor hedged about with so 
effective hindrances as in our southern States.* 

* There were some circumstances which rendered manumission more 
likely to occur among the Romans than among us. Many of their 
slaves were reduced to this condition from being taken captives in 
war ; for conquered enemies, who did not voluntarily surrender, were, 
as a matter of course, taken as slaves. There would, consequently, be 
among their slaves a very considerable diversity as to intelligence and 
information, and as to external characteristics, particularly as to 
color. It was therefore the case, that however in theory the condi- 
tion of a slave was one of extreme degradation, yet the personal 
qualities of many a slave would be such as to insure respect, and 
there would be no prejudice arising from color, unfavorable to his 
being admitted to the rights of a citizen. Among us, however, intel- 
lectual inferiority, whether natural or only the result of circumstan- 
ces, is an almost universal characteristic of the slave population ; so 
that there is felt to be an immense distance between the slaves and 
their masters. In addition, their difference in point of color from 
their masters, operates greatly (unjustly, no doubt,) to their disadvan- 
tage, and has a powerful influence in cherishing among the masters a 
feeling which opposes their being admitted to the possession of equal 
rights. This happens, too, without necessarily generating an unkind 
and bitter spirit towards the slaves, viewed as such ; for, to apply, 
with some little alteration, the language of Mr. Bancroft, (History of 
the United States,) in describing Oglethorpe, " there are men filled 
with the sentiment of humanity, yet having a predilection for the in- 
stitutions of aristocracy — willing to protect the humble, rather than 
to surrender power and establish equality." 



SLAVERY COMPARED. 27 

To the preceding statements may be added 
the following extract from the Roman laws 
themselves, as presented in the code of Justinian. 

" Slaves are in the power of their masters 

In all nations, we know that masters have had 
the power of life and death over their slaves ; 
and whatever is acquired by the slave, belongs 
to his master. But, at the present time, no men, 
who are under our sway, are allowed, without 
legal cause, to exercise undue severity towards 
their slaves. For, by the decree of the divine 
Antoninus, whoever should kill his own slave 
without cause, is condemned to be punished not 

less than if he had killed another man's 

Antoninus also ordained, that if masters exercised 
an intolerable cruelty, they should be compelled 
to sell their slaves on good terms, and the price 
should be given to the masters. And very right- 
ly ; for the good of the State requires that no 
man should make a bad use of his property," 
Justiniani Institutiones, Liber I. Tit. VIII. 

From the well known History of the Decline 
and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Gibbon, the 



28 AMERICAN AND ROMAN 

following paragraphs are selected. " The per- 
fect settlement of the Roman empire was pre- 
ceded by ages of violence and rapine. The 
slaves consisted, for the most part, of barbarian 
captives, taken in thousands by the chance of 
war, purchased at a vile price, accustomed to a 
life of independence, and impatient to break and 
to revenge their fetters. Against such internal 
enemies, whose desperate insurrections had more 
than once reduced the republic to the brink of 
destruction, the most severe regulations and the 
most cruel treatment seemed almost justified by 
the great law of self-preservation. But when the 
principal nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa, 
were united under the laws of one sovereign, the 
source of foreign supplies flowed with much less 
abundance, and the Romans were reduced to 
the milder, but more tedious, method of propaga- 
tion. In their numerous families, and particu- 
larly in their country estates, they encouraged 
the marriage of their slaves. The sentiments of 
nature, the habits of education, and the posses- 
sion of a dependent species of property, contrib- 



SLAVERY COMPARED. 29 

uted to alleviate the hardships of servitude. The 
existence of a slave became an object of greater 
value ; and though his happiness still depended 
on the temper and circumstances of the master, 
the humanity of the latter, instead of being re- 
strained by fear, was encouraged by the sense of 
his own interest. The progress of manners was 
accelerated by the virtue, or policy of the empe- 
rors, and by the edicts of Hadrian and the Anto- 
nines the protection of the laws was extended to 
the most abject part of mankind. The jurisdic- 
tion of life and death over the slaves, a power 
long exercised and often abused, was taken out 
of private hands, and reserved to the magistrates 
alone. The subterraneous prisons were abol- 
ished ; and, upon a just complaint of intolerable 
treatment, the injured slave obtained either his 
deliverance, or a less cruel master. 

"Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect con- 
dition, was not denied to the Roman slave ; and 
if lie had any opportunity of rendering himself 
either useful or agreeable, he might very natu- 
rally expect that the diligence and fidelity of a 
3* 



30 AMERICAN AND ROMAN 

few years would be rewarded with the inestima- 
ble gift of freedom. The benevolence of the 
master was so frequently prompted by the mean- 
er suggestions of vanity and avarice, that the 
laws found it more necessary to restrain than to 
encourage a profuse and undistinguished liberal- 
ity, which might degenerate into a very danger- 
ous abuse. It was a maxim T)f ancient jurispru- 
dence, that a slave had not any country of his 
own ; he acquired with his liberty an admission 
into the political society of which his patron was 
a member. The consequences of this maxim 
would have prostituted the privileges of the 
Roman city to a mean and promiscuous multi- 
tude. Some seasonable exceptions were there- 
fore provided ; and the honorable distinction was 
confined to such slaves only, as for just causes, 
and with the approbation of the magistrate, 
should receive a solemn and legal manumission. 
Even these chosen freedmen obtained no more 
than the private rights of citizens, and were rig- 
orously excluded from civil or military honors. 
Whatever miaht be the merit or fortune of their 



SLAVERY COMPARED. 31 

sons, thy likewise were esteemed unworthy of 
a seat in the senate; nor were the traces of a 
servile origin allowed to be completely obliter- 
ated till the third or fourth generation. With- 
out destroying the distinction of ranks, a distant 
prospect of freedom and honors was presented, 
even to those whom pride and prejudice almost 
disdained to number among the human species." 
Chapter II.* 

* The Christian Fathers, who lived in the midst of Roman insti- 
tutions, throujrh several centuries afler the apostles' times, make such 
allusions to a slate of slave: y, as clearly show that the long-estab- 
lished system of servile bondage was still in being. 

The following extract from the learned workof August!, on the An- 
tiquities of the Christian Church, (Denkwlirdigkeiten aus derchristli- 
cher Archaologie,) is explicit and decisive in regard to the early periods 
of the Christian era. Speaking of the baptism of slaves, he says : — 
" These were regarded, according to the Roman law, not as persons, 
but as things; and could not therefore enter independently into obliga- 
tions, but must, just as children, &c., be represented [by another.] 
The Apostolical Constitutions," (a book of ecclesiastical regulations, 
beloniring, as the regulations were introduced by degrees, to the third 
and fourth centuries,) " required that the slave of a master, who was 
not a Christian, should not be admitted to baptism without his mas- 
ter's consent; and respecting the slave of a Christian master, the fol- 
lowing is the direction : ' If he be the servant of a believer, let his 
master be asked, whether he can testify in his favor ; and if he cannot, 
let the servant be put off until he gains the good opinion of his master; 
but if his master can thus testify, let him be admitted.' " 7 Bd.p.332. 

For an instructive and deeply interesting view of " Roman Slavery, 
in the early centuries of the Christian era," see the Biblical Reposi- 
tory and Quarterly Observer, vol. VI. article iv. page 411. 



32 AMERICAN AND ROMAN SLAVERY &C. 

This part of the subject need be pursued no 
further. The resemblance, in point of condi- 
tion, between the masters whom the apostle 
Paul addressed, and those of the present day at 
the South, renders it proper to apply to the latter 
the directions originally given to the former. 



PART III. 

THE APOSTOLIC DIR?:CTIOXS TO MASTERS, EX- 
AMINED. 

This essay designs simply to exhibit the prin- 
ciples which are contained in the apostolic direc- 
tions to masters. Indeed, those directions may 
be regarded as statements of general principles 
applicable to the case in hand ; applicable in 
diverse ways, according to diversity of circum- 
stances. The New Testament does not treat 
Christians as children, needing very precise 
and minute regulations, but as men, of enlightened 
judgment, and of tender conscience, inclined, 
through the influence of love and a sense of duty, 
to adopt in practice the principles which their 
Lord inculcates. The directions to masters are 
few and simple, yet comprehensive. In the 
epistle to the Ephesians, 6:9, is the first to which 



34 DIRECTIONS TO 

it is important to direct attention : "And ye mas- 
ters, do the same things unto them, forbearing 
threatening." An examination of the preceding 
verses, in which servants are instructed, renders 
the expression, "same things,'' quite intelligible. 
It is as if the apostle had said. Conduct in a simi- 
lar manner ; that is, with sincere good will to- 
wards them, and with a sense of religious obliga- 
tion to your Master in heaven. The other 
expression, "forbearing threatening,'' needs no 
elaborate commentary, A harsh and severe 
method of speaking to them — an endeavor to 
intimidate them by a show of authority, and, by 
just consequence, severity of treatment, are for- 
bidden. The master is evidently required to 
cherish towards his servants, both in language 
and conduct, a strict regard to benevolence. 

Let us now pass to the epistle to the Colos- 
sians, 4: 1, "Masters, give unto your servants 
that which is just and equal." On the Ephesians 
the apostle had enjoined a hind and benevolent 
course of treatment. On the Colossians he here 
enjoins a just and equitable course of conduct 



MASTERS EXAMINED. 35 

towards their servants. The expression, " that 
which is equal," means equity ; the same word 
which is here employed in the original, occurs 
also in 2 Corinthians, 8: 14, where it is rendered 
equality, and where the idea of equity, or equita- 
ble distribution, is perfectly obvious. *' For I 
mean not," said the apostle, in the 13th verse, 
" that other men be eased, and you burdened ; 
but (14th verse,) by an equality, that now at this 
time your abundance may be a supply for their 
want : that their abundance also, may be a supply 
for your want ; that there may be equality." The 
two companies, of which the apostle was speaking, 
were required, by a just distribution of benevolent 
duties, to sustain to one another an equitable pro- 
portion, so that neither should have reason to com- 
plain of the other. In the directions to the Co- 
lossians, then, the apostle enjoins that they should 
treat their servants with justice and equity.* Here, 
now, the apostle would bring the two parties, ser- 

* The writer is not anxious here, to discriminate between these two 
words, or to avoid tautology. He wishes to retain, as nearly as pos- 
R'.ble, the apostle's expressions, in an attempt to present the apostle's 
idea. 



36 DIRECTIONS TO 

vant and master, together ; and would have a just 
and equitable arrangement made as to burdens 
and enjoyments, asto labor and recompense. As the 
servant is so dependent on the master, this adjust- 
ment would need to be extended to a great variety 
of particulars. While the servant is to be profit- 
able to the master by his labor, the master, on 
the other hand, is in a fair and equitable manner 
to provide for the servant's subsistence and hap- 
piness, with an endeavor that mutual justice be 
not in any respect violated. Into such an adjust- 
ment must enter a consideration of the servant's 
habitation, his clothing, his food, protection 
from harm, care of him in sickness and other dis- 
tress, opportunities for mental improvement and 
religious instruction. Thus, on the apostle's 
principle, there would come to be an equitable 
— we do not say an equal, in the ordinary sense 
of that word, but an equitable — distribution, be- 
tween the master and the servant, of labor and of 
profit ; and the master would be, so to speak, 
according to Chrysostom's idea, the slave of his 
servant, as well as the servant the slave of his 



MASTERS, EXAMINED. 37 

master ; that is, the master would be careful to 
meet all the just claims of his servant on him, as 
well as the servant the claims of his master. 

There is no need of further expanding this 
idea of the apostle. It is remarkably in accord- 
ance with his direction to the Ephesians ; and 
though the terms he here employs are different, 
yet the practical operation of each rule, would 
lead to the same results. As furnishing a prac- 
tical illustration of the spirit which the apostle 
enjoins, and as even extending its operation, we 
may refer to the case of Philemon and Onesimus. 
The apostle was careful to send back Onesimus 
to his master ; but he was equally careful to ap- 
peal to the Christian sympathies of Philemon in 
behalf of Onesimus, beseeching him to treat 
henceforward on the principle of Christian love, 
as " a brother beloved," him whom he had been 
in the habit of regarding only as a slave. Pre- 
cisely what Christian love required Philemon to 
do, Paul did not say. Nor was it needful. He 
submitted the case to Philemon's conscience and 

Christian affection, assured that he would comply 
4 



38 DIRECTIONS TO 

with what Christian love should require. By 
parity of reasoning, Christian masters are required 
to treat their Christian slaves on the principle of 
Christian love, as brethren in Christ ; and what- 
ever would be contrary to the claims of Christian 
affection, they are to avoid. 

Three points, now, we may consider made 
plain, as to the duty of Christian masters towards 
their slaves. First, they are to avoid severity, 
and are to act in a kind and benevolent manner. 
Second, they are to act according to mutual 
justice and equity. Third, they are to treat 
their Christian slaves according to the dictates of 
fraternal Christian love. In reference to this 
third point, it must be remarked, that while the 
New Testament evidently encourages Christian 
love as an affection belonging to the followers of 
Christ, viewed as such, it yet nowhere justifies an 
exclusiveness in our kind and compassionate re- 
gards. On the contrary, it enjoins universal 
love — love even to our enemies ; and exhibits as 
our pattern, the Father of all, who sends bles- 
sings on the evil as well as on the good. It 



MASTERS, EXAMINED. 39 

teaches us, and it strongly impresses this thought 
on masters in reference to their servants, that as 
God is no respecter of persons, so we should not 
be unfavorably influenced by the circumstances 
of any man's condition, however lowly ; that we 
should feel towards him as a fellow-man and a 
brother of the human family. And thus the 
great law of love, so emphatically enjoined by 
our Lord, reaches the subject of which we are 
now speaking : — All things whatsoever ye would 
that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them. This may, indeed, be considered as com- 
prehending in its wide embrace all the directions 
which have been above presented ; for certainly 
it is but a proper desire that others should abstain 
from severity towards us, should treat us with 
equity, and should regard us with Christian affec- 
tion, if we be indeed the disciples of Jesus. 

Such are the principles which the apostle en- 
joins ; and in view of these, we need not perplex 
ourselves with the inquiry. Whether the New 
Testament does not tolerate slavery as a perma- 
nent condition. The views and feelingrs of the 



40 



DIRECTIONS TO 



apostle in regard to the slavery existing in his 
time, are sufficiently disclosed by these princi- 
ples. To slavery, as well as to every other sub- 
ject in which morality was concerned, he ap- 
plied the requisitions of righteousness and be- 
nevolence. The principles he inculcated had a 
natural tendency, it is perfectly obvious, to mod- 
ify slavery essentially, and ultimately, and by no 
very lengthened process, to change the slave's 
condition into that of a laborer, who should 
receive for his services a just and equitable com- 
pensation. If the apostle declined, then, to ex- 
press any opinion directly, in regard to the real 
character of slavery, as legally viewed, his silence 
is not to be construed into an approval of it, or 
even an indifference towards it ; nor again, into 
timidity. The peculiarity of the New Testa- 
ment, as to its instructions in regard to civil and 
social institutions with which morality also is 
concerned, appears in its treatment of this sub- 
ject. It does not pronounce sentence, either of 
approval or of disapproval, on such institutions. It 
addresses those who are concerned, and informs 



MASTERS, EXAMINED. 41 

them by what moral principles they are to regu- 
late their conduct in reference to those institu- 
tions ; and it leaves those principles silently and 
peacefully, yet surely, if they are adopted, to effect 
the needed changes. Thus, in regard to slavery : 
the gospel found a state of slavery existing; and 
without pronouncing on the question, whether 
such a state is right — or, whether a Christian may 
hold slaves, — it enforced on those whom it found 
sustaining the relation of masters, the fundamen- 
tal law of love and equity in their treatment of 
slaves. It unfolded the principles by which the 
master ought to be regulated : principles, which 
were directly at variance with the mode, then 
current, of viewing slavery and treating the slave, 
and which could not fail, if allowed a fair opera- 
tion, to modify essentially the relation which the 
master sustained. It left those principles to their 
legitimate operation on the consciences and 
hearts of Christians. It imbued the soul with a 
spirit of love, and placed every master 
on his personal responsibility to God in reducing 

to practice those principles. In all ages and 

4* 



42 DIRECTIONS TO 

countries, those who act in accordance with 
these principles, act rightly ; he who disregards 
these principles, will not find the New Testament 
on his side. Instead of asking an abstract ques- 
tion, then, there should be a practical inquiry : 
Am I regulating my conduct by these principles? 
And this inquiry should be applied, not in the 
gross, but with a reference to particular persons 
and particular topics; topics, connected with the 
slave's subsistence and outward comfort, with his 
mental culture and opportunities for religious 
improvement. Each man ought to examine for 
himself, whether he, as an individual follower of 
Christ, is applying to all who are in subjection 
to him and dependent on him, and to all the cir- 
cumstances and necessities of such, the just, 
benevolent and fraternal principles which the 
gospel enjoins, and which the gospel inspires. 
Nor ought any one to rest contented, until he is 
conscious that in his relation to his servants these 
principles are practically regarded 

The following passage from Neander's History 
of the Planting of the Christian Church by the 



MASTERS, EXAMINED. 43 

Apostles, is strikingly coincident with the views 
just expressed. Neander, it may be remarked, 
holds an eminent place among living writers as a 
profound philosophical historian. He says, — 
*' When Paul speaks of the various relations of 
life which men sustained at their conversion, he 
established the rule that each one should continue 
in those relations — 1 Cor. 7: 20. Christianity did 
not force a man out of the relations in which his 
birth and education, and the providential dispo- 
sal of his lot had placed him ; but it taught 
him to take a new view of those relations, and to 
conduct in them with a new disposition. It pro- 
duced no sudden revolutions, but it made the 
condition entirely new, by virtue of the new 
views and disposition which it imparted to the 
soul. This rule the apostle applies to the par- 
ticular relation in which the slaves stood. Their 
case eminently needed consideration, because 
the gospel, from its very commencement, being 
at first preached to the poor, found among them 
abundant success ; and because the feeling which 
Christianity imparted of the common dignity of 



44 DIRECTIONS TO 

mankind and of human rights, might excite an 
endeavor to throw off the earthly yoke. In re- 
gard to them, too, Christianity, lest it should 
mingle worldly and spiritual things, and fail of 
its chief design — the salvation of souls — did not 
undertake to affect their relations in a sudden or 
violent manner. It relied on the mind and dis- 
position for accomplishing needed changes in the 
outward condition. To servants, the gospel im- 
parted a higher life, and thus elevated them 
above the level of their earthly relations ; and 
although masters were not required by the 
apostles to give freedom to their servants, in- 
asmuch as it was foreign to the apostles' province 
to interfere with the forms of civil relations, yet 
Christianity inspired in the masters such a sense 
of duty to their servants and such dispositions 
towards them, and it required them so to recog- 
nize as their brethren those slaves who had 
become Christians, that by that very circumstance 
their relation to their slaves would, in a voluntary 
manner on their part, undergo an alteration."* 

* Geschichte der Pflanzung und Leitung der christlichen Kirche 
durch die Apostel. 1 Band, 923. 



MASTERS, F.XAMINED. 45 

There are, it must be granted, serious hin- 
drances to the full application of these principles 
on the part of Christians at the South. They 
would lead to a course of conduct different in 
some important respects from that which prevails 
in slave-holding communities, and would carry 
to a higher point some of the instances in which 
a sense of duty requires Christians in such com- 
munities to differ from their neighbors. But 
Christians are required to come out from the 
world, and to be separate, as the Lord's peculiar 
people — the light of the world and the salt of 
the earth. And as Christian principle, illustrated 
by Christian example, has already done much for 
the benefit of the slave, so it is capable of accom- 
plishing immensely more, not only with safety to 
society, but greatly to its advantage. It must 
also be conceded, that the laws in some of the 
slave-holding States are directly at variance with 
some of the claims which the apostles' directions 
would make for the well-being and elevation of 
the slave. The hindrances created by law to the 
operation of Christian benevolence and justice in 



46 DIRECTIONS TO 

favor of the slave, are indeed regarded by many 
as an insuperable difficulty ; and since it is 
clearly their duty, as peaceable citizens, to obey 
*'the powers that be," they conceive that, in this 
clashing of duties, they must submit to the ne- 
cessity of the case, and content themselves with 
doing for their slaves what they can, consistently 
with the laws. But, is the case, even at this 
point, so desperate as is generally presumed? 
None of our laws are laws of the Medes and 
Persians. When laws in these United States 
are felt to be unreasonable and oppressive, the 
people know where the remedy lies. Not the 
slightest hint is here intended to any turbulent or 
illegal measures. Our legislatures are accessi- 
ble. Petitions to the proper body, respectful, 
and urgent, and persevering, have efficacy. 
More than this : the people themselves choose 
their rulers. In the exercise of their constitu- 
tional rights, they can re-elect the same men, or 
appoint others in their stead. The popular will is 
an essential element in our theory of government. 
Pious men may contribute to the forming of pub- 



MASTERS, EXAMINED. 47 

lie opinion, and consequently to the character of 
legislation, as much, to say the least, as other 
members of the community. Our legislatures 
are not bodies of men wielding a permanent 
authority, to whose dictation we must bow with- 
out relief Men having such constitutional 
rights, have an equal responsibility. The lan- 
guage of just complaint, if it dies away in mere 
sighs, mistakes the character of our governmental 
principles, and the duty of free citizens. If the 
several sections of the Christian community, 
through a deeply conscientious regard to the 
authority of their Lord, and a wakeful interest in 
the elevation and improvement of their fellow- 
men, should use their right of suffrage with re- 
ference to this point, and perseveringly seek a 
repeal of existing legislative hindrances to the full 
discharge of their duty to their slaves, their voice 
would be heard. A removal of existing impedi- 
ments might thus be obtained ; so that every man 
could feel at liberty to do what his enlightened 
conscience and Christian benevolence require. 
And who can tell, how soon decided majorities 



48 DIRECTIONS TO 

might be found in the various States concerned — 
among the people, and, as a consequence, in 
their legislatures — in favor of even positive en- 
actments for the benefit of the slaves, besides 
those which already exist ? It cannot indeed be 
thought a duty, in such a country as ours, violently 
to resist existing laws. Still, if any laws do evident- 
ly conflict with the claims of Christian duty, and 
if it be possible for conscientious men, by united 
and persevering efforts, to obtain a modification 
of those laws, is it not evident, that even thouo-h 
they may be doing now for their slaves all that 
they can, consistently with the laws, and so far 
may have a quiet conscience, it may still be re- 
quired at their hands to seek, judiciously and 
earnestly, such changes in the laws, as that all 
the claims of Christian benevolence may be an- 
swered? And let no man think, that he is a 
cipher in the Christian community, or in the 
body politic. On some, indeed, of superior wis- 
dom and station, a heavier responsibility rests 
then on others ; because they influence the sen- 
timents of others. But no man is so inferior as 



MASTERS, EXAMINED. 49 

to have no power to aid a work of Christian 
benevolence. 

These last considerations help us to take a 
correct view of the manner in which the great 
law of love, the golden rule, bears on the case 
of Christian masters, who are embarrassed by 
legal enactments — Whatsoever ye would that men 
should do to you, do ye even so to them. That 
is. Do to others as you could reasonably and 
properly wish them to do to you, were they in 
your condition and you in theirs. Suppose, now, 
that we were ourselves the slaves : we should 
wish, very reasonably, our masters to do for our 
welfare what they could consistently with all 
the existing circumstances in which we and they 
were placed. And if it were possible for them 
to effect, even to a slight extent, a change in the 
circumstances of the relation, so that they might 
consistently do more for us, we should doubtless 
regard that as a part of their duty. While cir- 
cumstances remain as they are, then, Christian 
masters ought to be doing all that they legally 
can, and to be making a nearer and nearer ap- 



50 DIRECTIONS TO 

proach to the high standard of Christian requisi- 
tion ; and in the mean time to be making earnest 
and untiring efforts for the removal of those 
impediments which hinder the full operation of 
Christian benevolence and equity. Their course 
should be regulated, not by selfish principles, 
prompting them to seek their own interests ex- 
clusively, or even mainly, and regarding their 
slaves more as instruments of wealth, than as 
brethren of the human family ; but by benevolent 
and equitable principles, prompting them to love 
their lowly neighbor even as themselves, and to 
seek the mental and moral improvement, the pres- 
ent and the future happiness, of all around them, 
high and low, rich and poor, free and bond. 

The natural consequences of such a course of 
treatment, any one must be blind not to see. It 
has been sufficiently shown in a former paragraph. 
It would, beyond a question, issue in the eman- 
cipation of the slaves. And let not such a pros- 
pect startle any one. This result would be most 
accordant with the genius of the gospel and with 
the spontaneous influence of Christian love. It 



MASTERS, EXAMINED. 39 

would, also, be effected in that peaceful and ad- 
vantageous way in which Christianity has already 
accomplished so many revolutions among men. 
The immediate consequence, doubtless, would 
be to render slavery merely nominal, as to its 
bearing on the slave. Slavery, as now under- 
stood, would come to be a misnomer, and, by a 
process easily conceived of, would disappear. 
And thus there would be another illustration of 
the entire concord between the principles of the 
gospel and the principles of natural right, as well 
as a noble exemplification of the manner in 
which the religion of Jesus is adapted to leaven 
the whole mass of human society, producing, by 
its pervading, yet noiseless, influence on men's 
sentiments* the most radical revolutions, without 
doing violence to any in its powerful march of 
benevolence. And O, what a work may be set 
forward by Southern Christians ! They are the 
proper agents in it. Christians at the North 
may, indeed, render service in this work of 
human improvement and elevation, by encourag- 

* That is, their opinions and feelings combined. 



52 DIRECTIONS TO 

ing and cherishing, among those who are per- 
sonally concerned, the spirit of Christian love 
and the sense of duty on which, according to the 
plan of the gospel, chief reliance is to be placed. 
But southern Christians are the proper laborers 
in this department of benevolence and duty. 
May they have the happiness and the honor of 
performing the work. Let them with tenderness 
of spirit and with anxiety to know their Lord's 
will, examine the apostolic directions ; let them 
ask counsel of one another and of God, and place 
themselves in the most favorable position for 
conferring the highest benefits, both temporal 
and spiritual, on those fellow-men and fellow- 
Christians, with whom they sustain so intimate a 
connection, and who are so dependent on their 
justice and benevolence. 

It ought to be held as a settled point, that, 
among the triumphs of the gospel, the removal 
of slavery is to have a place. The evils and the 
woes, which cannot be separated from the system, 
are to have an end ; and the relations between 
man and man are to be placed on a just and 



MASTERS, EXAMINED. 53 

equitable basis. The nature and the design of 
Christianity evidently point to this. We need 
no special voice from heaven to teach us that 
such is the will of God. This will is sufficiently 
manifested in the unavoidable results of slavery 
and in the directions of the New Testament. 
The moral relation, too, which all Christians 
sustain to one another, and especially that which 
exists between members of the same individual 
church, are almost perpetually felt by pious 
church-members in slave-holding communi- 
ties to be incongruous with slavery. The 
idea of Christian brother, as required to- 
wards the slave who is a Christian, as well as 
towards any other pious man, it is extremely 
difficult, if not impossible in many circumstances, 
to realize in such communities. And on no 
point of duty are the conscience and the 
heart of a pious master so liable to be wounded, 
as on this. But why dwell on a thought which 
so often afflicts the soul of almost every southern 
Christian ? 



54 DIRECTIONS TO, &/C. 

The preceding pages have treated solely on 
the moral, or Christian, view of the subject. 
With political and economical advantages, or 
disadvantages, to be expected from a full practi- 
cal adoption of the apostolic directions, this 
essay has nothing to do. Of one thing we may 
rest assured ; that, as the ways of God are equal, 
he would not allow a thorough conformity to his 
will to be otherwise than safe and advantageous. 
Our moral Governor is also the God of providence. 
And though temporary embarrassments might be 
occasioned by the endeavor to enter on a full and 
undeviating compliance with his will, yet those 
embarrassments would give place to permanent 
peace and prosperity ; and even the temporary 
embarrassments would be found light, compared 
with the hazards and the actual evils permanently 
connected with a failure to give full scope to 
those principles of mutual benevolence and jus- 
tice, which God has established for regulating the 
social relations of men. 



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